Sierra Leone News

While the 2014–2016 deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa devastated lives and wrecked health services, it also offered pivotal lessons in outbreak control by stoking swift and more effective response as well as driving progress in vaccines and therapeutics.

Freetown – While the 2014–2016 deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa devastated lives and wrecked health services, it also offered pivotal lessons in outbreak control by stoking swift and more effective response as well as driving progress in vaccines and therapeutics.

Freetown, 11 May 2021 – Ebola vaccination kicked off today in Sierra Leone as the country takes proactive public health measures to protect people at high risk of infection in case of any potential cross-border transmission of the disease from the ongoing outbreak in neighbouring Guinea.

Freetown, 10 April 2021 – Sierra Leone today received the first batch of Ebola vaccines donated through the partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the vaccine manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. A total of 30 000 regimen of the vaccines have been approved for Sierra Leone to protect people at high risk of the disease. Each regimen consists of two doses and would be given to the beneficiaries approximately eight weeks apart. The first consignment consists of 640 doses. Another consignment of 3 840 is expected to arrive in Freetown on 11 April. Subsequent consignments will be delivered during the period of the preventive vaccination.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monday 8 March 2021 - Today, Sierra Leone received the first batch of 96,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine shipped via the COVAX Facility, a partnership between the Government Sierra Leone, CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO. This is a historic step towards our goal to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, in what will be the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history. The delivery is part of a first wave of arrivals of an initial 528,000 doses that will continue till end of May 2021.

Sierra Leone convened its first consultative meeting to initiate discussions on adaptation and introduction of the WHO Consolidated Guideline on Self-care Interventions for Sexual and Reproductive Health with key reproductive and child health stakeholders and Partners on 21 January.

Freetown - 14 December 2020 - The Ministry of Health and Sanitation wishes to inform the general public that preliminary results from the investigations of children manifesting weakness of the limbs, referred to as ‘Acute Flaccid Paralysis’ (AFP) have led to the isolation of poliovirus type 2 from three cases of AFP in Kambia, Tonkolili and Western Area Rural respectively.

“Antimicrobial resistance is not only a global public health concern but also a developmental challenge costing the world $10 trillion dollars, while killing 700,000 people each year and is projected to kill 10 million by 2050 if urgent action is not taken” says Dr. Ibrahim Franklyn Kamara, AMR Operational Research Fellow and member of the WHO IPC Team, at the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week scientific meeting held on 24th November 2020 in Freetown.

As various health sector responders implement activities geared towards ending the spread of COVID-19, which over 2300 people in Sierra Leone has tested positive for, the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) unit in WHO Sierra Leone has embarked on a nationwide IPC assessment in all Government Hospitals and selected educational institutions in all the 16 districts of Sierra Leone.